Managing the Project Interfaces 191stake. A bigger concern, though, is the long-term relationship
you maintain with resource providers. If your relationship is
good, you may be able to acquire better resources. It’s in your
best interest to cultivate and maintain a good relationship with
resource providers.
Your Manager (or “Boss”)
Nearly all project managers report to someone. Though the
concept of a “boss” is in a state of transition, let’s use the term
here, for simplicity. Even though your boss may not be directly
involved in your project, he or she is still a stakeholder. Take
Brad, for example, and his boss, Susan. If Brad manages
Project Apex poorly, it will reflect poorly upon Susan, because
she assigned him as the project manager. More important,
Brad, as project manager, is acting as an agentof Susan. That’s
still the way most organizational hierarchies are interpreted—
and it’s a key issue that you need to appreciate. Your boss,
therefore, has a very bigstake in you and your project. So, you
have certain responsibilities. One of the biggest is to keep your
boss fully informed at all times. Your boss will view one of your
primary responsibilities as protecting him or her from being
blindsided—hit by any surprises or lacking some critical infor-
mation that he or she should have known.
Support Groups
Various groups within your organization—such as legal,
accounting, data processing, and clerical—will often play a role
more supportive than active, depending on the specific needs of
Strive for Single-Point Accountability
In multi-disciplined environments, several people from each of
several departments may end up working on your project. In situations
like this, you should try to assemble a core team that consists of a sin-
gle representative from each participating department or work group.
Ideally, this person will assume responsibility for coordinating the work
that’s executed by his or her department.This “single-point accounta-
bility” reduces the number of interfaces you must maintain, you’ll
always know who to contact, and you greatly reduce or even eliminate
the “finger pointing” that can come with dual responsibility.